Where Can I Live?
Submitted by: Christopher Osborne
Website: http://www.cloudsourced.com/Diss/simple/test3.php
Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?
Where Can I Live?
Its difficult to chose an area to live, especially if you are moving to a new city. In the age of two hour commutes and rising petrol prices it makes sense to chose an area that is easily commutable by public transport, bicycle, on foot or car. People are more environmentally aware but lack easy tools to help them change their lifestyles. Everyone knows house prices are high, but where are the places you can afford to live in?
This website allows you to name a location you commute to, choose the property type you are looking for (no of beds/sale/rent), how much you can afford, transport type and the maximum time you want to travel for. The website then searches and displays all of the surrounding areas which you can afford and travel to within the time limit.
Its very simple to use and displays the results on a Google Map so you can scroll around and investigate the suggested areas. Clicking on one of the points displays average property price, journey time and a range of links to search for available properties in that area. Comparison feature to show you how much time/money/carbon you can save by using different forms of transport.
The site will have environmental and health benefits: it encourages people to chose an area where they can commute to work by public transport, hopefully getting people on bikes or walking to work and improving their health, better air quality and less road accidents by getting people out of cars.
I have already done a lot of work on this project in my spare time and have a demo/proof of concept online here:
http://www.cloudsourced.com/Diss/simple/test3.php
The demo is for London and the tube only.
I have considerable expertise in this field and just need time and money to expand the service.
Plans for expansion: use the Department of Transport API and create a UK-wide system for all forms of transport. Using the Edubase and ONS neighbourhood statistics to give more information about areas and possibly create better searching like show me an area 20mins from here with a school and low crime rates etc.
What information or services do you need?
Access to Transport Direct's API for public transport locations, travel time data and carbon caluclator.
Transport for London's "Journey Planner" data.
Royal Mail postcode data.
Edubase for schools info.
Use the ONS neighbourhood statistics API to display more detailed information about areas.
Access to National Public Transport Access Node database.
Ordnance Survey ITN data.
Posted by Christopher Osborne on 25 January 2009 at 10:58 PM
Although I wasn't a winner, thought I should post a link to the finished article:
http://www.where-can-i-live.com
Enjoy
Posted by leigh on 04 December 2008 at 09:33 PM
brilliant idea. i think that this is so useful, keep it up! - and expand it quick, please!